Standing up for reason and clarity on the state board of education

Copyright 2012: Houston Chronicle

Updated 8:05 pm, Thursday, October 11, 2012

Not long ago, voters didn't pay much attention to the State Board of Education, which is charged chiefly with overseeing Texas' public-school curriculum and managing the state's textbook fund. But that was before the board became an extremist embarrassment.

Texas science students are now required to "critique" evolution, and their American history teachers are expected to paint Joseph McCarthy more as a patriot than the leader of a Commie witchhunt.

But the worst problems caused by the board's self-proclaimed Christian conservative majority aren't just ideological; they're educational. The conservative Fordham Institute called Texas' new history curriculum "a confusing, unteachable hodgepodge." And Texas' new math curriculum, Fordham says, lags behind those of Florida and California.

This year offers voters a chance to make sweeping changes. Because of redistricting, all 15 seats are up for election. In Houston-area races, the Chronicle supports an incumbent who has fought for reason and clarity, and two challengers who would be fresh voices of reason.

In District 4,Lawrence Allen, the Democratic incumbent, fought to see that slavery wasn't downplayed as the chief cause of the Civil War. As one of two African-Americans on the board, he's offered a crucial minority perspective. As a former teacher and principal and current director of special projects for the Houston Independent School District, he knows how schools work. And as son of state Rep. Alma Allen (D-Houston), he has valuable ties to the Texas Legislature.

In District 6, Traci Jensen, the Democratic challenger, is a former Aldine classroom teacher who earned a Ph.D in curriculum and instruction from the University of Houston, and now works with a UH program that coaches new teachers. She is smart as a whip, an expert in curricula, and promises to see that the board has a "clear, concise educational direction, not an ideological agenda."

In District 8, Democrat Dexter Smith has taught third and fourth-grade social studies for 12 years, and is now pursuing his principal certification. His opponent, the current board chair, has a long history of votes aligned with the ideological majority. Smith promises to do better, making sure, for instance, that people appointed to review curricula are mainstream experts in their fields. And he vows to help legislators understand how proposals would affect real-world classrooms.